Bad Dads Film Review

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, Wolf Week continues as Sidey, Dan and new dad Jamie sink their teeth into Martin Scorsese’s riotous financial crime epic The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau and Joanna Lumley. 
With Reegs absent and therefore no proper intro to keep things vaguely professional, the dads begin by catching up on what they’ve been watching. Dan has largely swapped screen time for Cold War spy histories while his wife is away in the Czech Republic for the summer, Jamie has returned to the comforting embrace of Blue Bloods, No Offence and Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and Sidey has endured Jason Statham’s Mutiny, a revenge-on-a-boat action thriller with suspiciously Die Hard-adjacent poster energy. 
The Top 5 this week is Wolves, which naturally sends the conversation roaming all over the cultural wilderness. There’s Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction, Moro from Princess Mononoke, Teen Wolf and the obvious sporting advantage of being Michael J. Fox with werewolf powers, plus Shrek’s Big Bad Wolf and a detour through wolf-related music from Warren Zevon, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Duran Duran, Howlin’ Wolf, Steppenwolf, Los Lobos, Wolfmother and Wolf Alice. Liam Neeson’s miserable survival odds in The Grey get a mention, as do Bad Wolf and Rose Tyler from Doctor Who, Jack Nicholson in Wolf, Remus Lupin, Dances with Wolves, Portia Crystal from Sing 2, Lupine Howl, the direwolves from Game of Thrones, How Wolves Change Rivers, Rainier Wolfcastle and Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 
Then it’s on to The Wolf of Wall Street, a film the dads note is arriving neatly alongside Jersey’s current Martin Scorsese cinema season. They follow Jordan Belfort from his first day as Wall Street pond scum through Matthew McConaughey’s career-rescuing lunch scene of coke, booze,chest-thumping and “rookie numbers”, before Black Monday promptly ends any chance of a respectable finance career. From there it’s penny stocks, Spike Jonze, 50% commissions and the arrival of Donnie Azoff, whose cousin-wife logic, blinding white teeth and crack-pipe networking help turn Stratton Oakmont into a full-blown fraud machine. 
Along the way, the dads dig into the film’s most notorious moments: the “sell me this pen” lesson, motivational speeches, middle fingers to clients, dwarf tossing, strippers, head shaving, Rob Reiner as Belfort’s furious father, Margot Robbie’s Naomi making her entrance, Donnie’s appalling first impression, the famous 11-second romance, Vegas excess, penicillin shots and a superyacht wedding present. They also cover Kyle Chandler’s FBI agent Patrick Denham closing in, Jon Favreau’s lawyer trying desperately to make Jordan stop, the Steve Madden IPO, hidden stock ownership, Joanna Lumley’s Aunt Emma and the Swiss bank account, plus Jordan’s spectacularly arrogant attempt to bribe the FBI with lobster, prostitutes and absolutely no self-awareness. 
The review also takes in the yacht storm and Italian rescue, the infamous Lemmon Quaaludes sequence with crawling, ham-choking and the destroyed Lamborghini reveal, Jordan wearing a wire while warning Donnie not to incriminate himself, and the ugly final collapse as Naomi demands a divorce, Jordan turns violent and everything finally crashes. By the end, the dads are left wrestling with prison, sales seminars and the uncomfortable question of whether the film really works as a cautionary tale, or whether it is simply too entertaining for its own good. 
Verdicts are strong across the board. Sidey recommends it, while still insisting it is far too long. Dan also gives it a strong recommend, particularly for the endlessly quotable scenes, and Jamie calls it a must-watch — although preferably consumed as three one-hour chunks rather than one enormous sitting.

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Bad Dads

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, it is Wolf Week, which means we are heading to the moors, the Tube, the London Zoo wolf enclosure and one of cinema’s all-time great transformation scenes for An American Werewolf in London.
Sidey and Dan are joined by guest dad Jamie for John Landis’s 1981 horror-comedy about two American backpackers, one very unwelcoming pub, and the worst possible way to discover that “stay on the road” was not just local colour.
Sidey had somehow never watched the whole film before, despite having seen the famous transformation sequence many times. Jamie definitely saw it before, but at an age where he absolutely should not have. Dan brings the cult-classic affection, and the result is a review full of practical effects appreciation, Yorkshire pub suspicion, Jenny Agutter, decomposing best mates and moon-based needle drops.
Along the way we discuss:
Jamie’s debut as a Bad Dad and the need for subtitles/phone voice
The Slaughtered Lamb and Britain’s least welcoming pint
Rick Mayall, Brian Glover, Frank Oz and other “what was he in?” faces
why the film does not bother over-explaining the village, the cover-up or the logistics of getting David to London
Jack returning as an increasingly decomposed undead adviser
the nightmare sequences, including the Nazi werewolf home invasion
Jenny Agutter as Nurse Alex Price and the film’s spectacularly fast romance
David being oddly honest about his visions, nightmares and wolf problem
Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning makeup and the transformation scene that still holds up
why practical effects age so much better than dodgy CGI
David waking naked in London Zoo and trying to buy a small boy’s balloons
the doomed attempt to get arrested by abusing the police and the monarchy
the porno-theatre support group of victims suggesting suicide methods
Piccadilly chaos, armed police, decapitation and catastrophic traffic management
the moon-heavy soundtrack, from Blue Moon to Bad Moon Rising
whether the film is horror, comedy, romance, body horror, or all of them at once
The dads come away with a very strong recommend. It is brisk, funny, gruesome, strangely sweet, brilliantly made and still properly entertaining. The werewolf may occasionally look like it is on a dolly, but the transformation remains magic, the comedy still lands, and the whole thing has exactly the right amount of nonsense.
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Bad Dads

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we review True History of the Kelly Gang, Justin Kurzel’s bleak, stylish and aggressively unromantic version of the Ned Kelly myth, starring George MacKay, Essie Davis, Nicholas Hoult, Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe.
Before we get to Australian outlaw trauma, we discuss the important stuff: Dan’s adult-nappy experiment, whether “pound a piss” is a viable subscription model, and Sidey’s long-standing policy of treating every body of water as a toilet.
Our top five is gangs / revolutions / rebellions, featuring:
Chris remembering the Romanian Revolution of 1989, childhood gunfire and shiny spent shells
The Warriors and “Warriors, come out to play”
The Wanderers and its soundtrack
the Rebel Alliance as freedom fighters / terrorists, depending on perspective
Spartacus and historical inaccuracy done properly
Police Academy 2 as, apparently, gang cinema
Daniel Day-Lewis method-acting complaints during Gangs of New York
the Fremen from Dune and spice-fuelled jihad
the Baader-Meinhof gang, Joe Strummer T-shirts and Luke Haines
Green Street Hooligans and football-fight bravado
childhood gangs from Stand by Me and It
the War Boys from Mad Max: Fury Road
Then we get into True History of the Kelly Gang, including:
the film’s fake-truth title gag
a red dress, a white horse and an apocalyptic Australian bush
young Ned Kelly watching his mother bargain with Charlie Hunnam’s police sergeant
Red Kelly, stolen cows, hidden dresses and emasculated fathers
Essie Davis as Ellen Kelly: protective, seductive, terrifying and constantly pushing Ned toward violence
Ned being offered a possible escape through education, only for his mother to sabotage it
Russell Crowe’s Harry Power, an enormous beard, and a family singalong about the “Constable Cunt”
Ned being sold into outlawry and refusing Harry Power’s pancakes
Charlie Hunnam having a very bad day in a whorehouse
the Sons of Sieve, dresses, mud-blackened faces and theatrical rebellion
George MacKay’s adult Ned arriving through brutal prize-fighting
Ned and Joe Byrne’s intense, ambiguous bond
Nicholas Hoult’s Fitzpatrick in suspenders socks, spreading vice and misery wherever he goes
Marlon Williams’ astonishing hair and “I’m gonna be your daddy” energy
Fitzpatrick’s predatory deal over Ned’s sister and the confrontation that finally tips everything over
Ellen Kelly asking why Ned did not kill him
police murders, severed ears, hostage-taking and bank robbery
the famous homemade armour
a botched train derailment plan
a strobing, bloody final siege where the police do not care who else is in the building
Ellen’s command to “die like a Kelly”
whether Australia’s Ned Kelly mythology is heroic, poisoned, or both
It is not an easy watch. Dan finds it long, bleak and punishing, though brilliantly acted. Reegs thinks it looks amazing and digs the way it interrogates Australian identity, colonial oppression and generational trauma. Chris appreciates the harshness and lack of romance. Sidey thinks this is probably closer to what survival and outlawry actually felt like than the cleaner folk-hero versions.
Verdicts: Dan gives it a mid recommend; Reegs, Chris and Sidey are on strong recommends.
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Bad Dads

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we review Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein’s A24 sports-hustle drama starring Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a table-tennis prodigy with Olympic-level confidence and almost no visible concern for anyone else.
Only Dan and Chris have done the homework this week, leaving Sidey and Reegs to interrogate them on the plot, the tone, the ping-pong, the Gwyneth Paltrow of it all, and whether Chalamet can truly carry a film when he still looks like a haunted Victorian child who has discovered hair product.
Along the way we discuss:
Chris failing to return from Romania with the promised contraband
parents discovering IMAX and immediately wanting a monthly cinema club
the Safdie brothers going their separate ways, with Josh Safdie on this and Benny Safdie off with The Rock
Marty working in a shoe shop but dreaming of table-tennis glory
a sperm-and-egg title sequence that nobody had quite expected
Marty robbing the family business while trying to frame it as sensible career planning
London tournaments, The Ritz and the ping-pong federation
Gwyneth Paltrow as Kay Stone, a famous actress in a loveless marriage
Endo, the terrifying Japanese player with the modern grip and superior paddle
whether the table-tennis sequences are CGI, doubles or just very committed editing
orange ping-pong balls, champagne bills and Marty’s endless self-mythologising
a hotel bath falling through the ceiling
Moses the gangster dog
Harlem Globetrotters-style ping-pong tricks
Marty getting to Japan, losing an exhibition match, refusing to kiss a pig, and demanding one more game
whether achieving your dream means anything if you have used everyone around you to get there
The big question: is Marty a brilliant, driven outsider, or just a selfish arsehole with a paddle?
Dan finds the character so unpleasant that it limits his enjoyment, even while acknowledging the film is very well made. Chris is more taken with the craft, the period detail, the tension and the way the film keeps moving despite its hefty runtime. Reegs hears shades of The Karate Kid, White Men Can’t Jump and Uncut Gems, while Sidey remains deeply suspicious of Timothée Chalamet’s pixie leading-man energy.
Verdicts: Chris is on a strong recommend, Dan is somewhere between mid and strong recommend, and Sidey and Reegs are officially TBC.
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Bad Dads

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, it is prison week — although with Riggs and Chris missing, Sidey and Dan are doing hard time as a two-man crew.
Before the main feature, we look at memorable prisons and prison stories from film, TV and music. That means everything from miscarriage-of-justice anger to escape-movie comfort food, brutal borstal drama, wizard prisons, sitcom prisons and, naturally, George Clooney being offensively cool in Out of Sight.
Along the way we discuss:
In the Name of the Father and the fury of the Guildford Four injustice
The Shawshank Redemption, new fish, Red, Andy Dufresne and the power of endless TV rewatchability
The Green Mile as another Stephen King prison classic
Birdman of Alcatraz, Escape from Alcatraz and The Rock
why Pete is missed whenever a Sean Connery impression is required
Brubaker, with Robert Redford discovering prison corruption from the inside
the glorious stupidity of Prison Break and its tattooed escape-plan premise
Scum, Midnight Express, Azkaban and The Great Escape
Folsom Prison Blues, Jailhouse Rock, I Fought the Law and John Lennon’s Attica State
Porridge, HMP Slade and Fletcher trying to survive the system by wisecracking
Escape from Sobibor and the power of stories about people walking out through horror
Out of Sight, Glades Correctional Institution and the possibly illegal hotness of George Clooney
Then we review Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar and starring Colman Domingo as John “Divine G” Whitfield. Inspired by the real Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, the film follows a group of incarcerated men who use theatre to build community, process emotion and make something together in a place designed to strip people of freedom.
The film opens with Divine G performing on stage. For a moment, it could be Broadway. Then the prison reality returns: standing to attention, routines, walls, control. That contrast becomes the film’s central power. Inside the rehearsal room, the men are not reduced to their crimes or their sentences. They are actors, writers, collaborators, comedians and friends.
A big part of the film’s authenticity comes from the cast. Alongside professional actors like Domingo and Paul Raci, many performers are real RTA alumni and formerly incarcerated men playing versions of themselves. Sidey and Dan both pick up on how much that matters. The film feels lived-in because many of the faces on screen have lived some version of this world.
The main dramatic spark comes when Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin joins the theatre group. He is guarded, tough and suspicious of vulnerability, but he is also the person who suggests the troupe should make a comedy instead of another serious drama. That choice leads to Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code, a real RTA production full of time travel, ancient Egypt, Hamlet and absolute chaos.
Sidey had not heard of Sing Sing before this week and might not have watched it without the nomination, but he is very glad he did. Dan is just as positive. The dads admire the film’s warmth, pace and humanity, and the way it avoids becoming either a grim prison misery parade or a simplistic “art fixes everything” story.
It is moving, funny, generous and grounded — a prison film about performance, friendship, grief, justice and purpose.
Strong recommend from both dads.
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We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
 
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Bad Dads